CVE-2025-41407: ManageEngine ADAudit Plus SQLi Flaw

CVE-2025-41407 Overview

CVE-2025-41407 is a SQL injection vulnerability affecting Zohocorp ManageEngine ADAudit Plus versions below 8511. The vulnerability exists within the OU History report functionality, allowing authenticated attackers with network access to inject malicious SQL commands and potentially compromise the underlying database.

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is a widely deployed Active Directory auditing solution used by enterprises to monitor user activities, track changes, and maintain compliance. SQL injection vulnerabilities in such critical security tools are particularly concerning as they can lead to unauthorized data access, privilege escalation, and compromise of sensitive audit logs.

Critical Impact

Authenticated attackers can exploit SQL injection in the OU History report to access or modify sensitive Active Directory audit data, potentially compromising the integrity of security monitoring infrastructure.

Affected Products

• Zohocorp ManageEngine ADAudit Plus versions below 8511
• Zohocorp ManageEngine ADAudit Plus version 8.5 (all builds prior to 8511)
• Zohocorp ManageEngine ADAudit Plus version 8.5 build 8500 and 8510

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-05-23 - CVE-2025-41407 published to NVD
• 2025-06-16 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-41407

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL injection vulnerability (CWE-89) resides in the OU History report component of ManageEngine ADAudit Plus. The vulnerability allows an authenticated user to inject arbitrary SQL commands through improperly sanitized input parameters. The attack requires network access and valid credentials (low privileges), but no user interaction is needed for exploitation.

The vulnerability can result in high impact to both confidentiality and integrity of the affected system, with limited impact on availability. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to extract sensitive audit data, modify database records, or potentially gain further access to the underlying system.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-41407 is improper neutralization of special elements used in SQL commands (CWE-89). The OU History report functionality fails to properly validate and sanitize user-supplied input before incorporating it into SQL queries. This allows attackers to inject malicious SQL syntax that alters the intended query logic.

The vulnerability specifically affects the report generation mechanism where user parameters are directly concatenated into database queries without proper parameterization or input validation.

Attack Vector

The attack requires network access to the ManageEngine ADAudit Plus web interface. An attacker with valid low-privilege credentials can access the OU History report functionality and craft malicious input containing SQL injection payloads.

The exploitation process involves submitting specially crafted parameters to the OU History report endpoint. These parameters bypass input validation and allow the attacker to execute arbitrary SQL statements against the backend database. This can be used to extract sensitive audit logs, user information, configuration data, or potentially modify existing records to cover tracks or escalate privileges within the application.

Since no proof-of-concept exploits have been publicly released for this vulnerability, organizations should prioritize patching based on the technical characteristics described in the vendor advisory.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-41407

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed requests to the OU History report endpoint containing SQL syntax characters such as single quotes, semicolons, or SQL keywords
• Database error messages appearing in application logs indicating SQL syntax errors or injection attempts
• Unexpected database query patterns or execution of atypical SQL commands in database audit logs
• Evidence of data exfiltration or unauthorized queries against sensitive tables containing audit information

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules specifically targeting SQL injection patterns in requests to the ADAudit Plus OU History report functionality
• Monitor application logs for error messages related to SQL parsing failures or database exceptions in the reporting module
• Implement database activity monitoring to detect anomalous query patterns that deviate from normal report generation behavior
• Enable detailed logging of authentication and report access to identify suspicious user activity patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Configure alerts for multiple failed SQL queries or database errors originating from the ADAudit Plus application
• Monitor for unusual data access patterns, particularly bulk data extraction from audit tables
• Track user sessions accessing the OU History report and correlate with expected usage patterns
• Review network traffic from the ADAudit Plus server for potential data exfiltration indicators

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-41407

Immediate Actions Required

• Upgrade ManageEngine ADAudit Plus to version 8511 or later immediately
• Review database and application logs for any evidence of exploitation prior to patching
• Audit user accounts with access to ADAudit Plus and verify legitimacy of all credentials
• Implement network segmentation to restrict access to the ADAudit Plus server to authorized users and systems only

Patch Information

Zohocorp has released ManageEngine ADAudit Plus version 8511 which addresses this SQL injection vulnerability. Administrators should upgrade to this version or later as soon as possible. Detailed patch information and upgrade instructions are available in the ManageEngine CVE-2025-41407 Advisory.

Organizations should follow standard change management procedures while prioritizing this update given the high severity of the vulnerability. Test the upgrade in a non-production environment if possible before deploying to production systems.

Workarounds

• Restrict network access to the ManageEngine ADAudit Plus interface to trusted IP addresses and VPN connections only
• Implement additional authentication requirements such as multi-factor authentication for accessing the application
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall with SQL injection protection rules in front of the ADAudit Plus server
• Disable or restrict access to the OU History report functionality until the patch can be applied if operationally feasible

# Example: Restrict access to ADAudit Plus via firewall rules
# Allow only trusted management network to access the application
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8081 -s 10.0.1.0/24 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8081 -j DROP